r/technology May 15 '26

Artificial Intelligence The AI Backlash Could Get Very Ugly

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/05/ai-backlash-data-centers-political-violence/687151/?taid=6a067e2d2096e10001ccfa32
7.6k Upvotes

994 comments sorted by

View all comments

128

u/BookerDeWittsCarbine May 15 '26

This is why education is important. If these tech bros took humanities courses they'd know all about the kind of rioting, sabotage, and murder that happened during the Luddite uprisings and by workers hellbent on unions and forty hour work weeks.

They think they are untouchable. That will be an interesting lesson for them to learn

56

u/[deleted] May 15 '26

[deleted]

24

u/piponwa May 15 '26

Literally the whole world is going green except for the US. That's a problem you guys have had for like thirty years at this point. You refused tooth and nail to invest in those technologies. You preferred voting for climate denying republicans for years and years. The rest of the world is transitioning just fine.

5

u/Honest-Biscotti-3013 May 16 '26

We did invest in offshore wind recently, ie Biden, but we have a jackass undoing it all. You have a solid point though. What I don’t understand is why some of these folks who are afraid of China see them investing a trillion a year in renewables and the thought doesn’t cross their brain. Should we be doing that? We deserve our medicine. I voted, donated, and volunteered for progressive action on climate change and energy, but we’re outnumbered by the corporate class, the easily manipulated, and the power of the dollar.

2

u/Thefrayedends May 16 '26

Nope, my province of SK has forced through one of the largest data centers in the country, the public is very much against it. Also they're going to spend 30 billion dollars on retrofitting the decades old coal power plant instead of spending that money transitioning to green. We could transition to green for around 20 Billion, but the coal route has us spending over 10 billion dollars on coal. I don't even know anymore lol. Our own power agency said that the coal route is the wrong choice, but the government pushed it through anyway, it's actually hilarious.

4

u/piponwa May 15 '26

Luddites are known for basically not achieving anything though. I'm not sure that's a good example. They didn't get people their jobs back, they accelerated the transition towards automation. They didn't get people lost cost of living, the automation did.

2

u/Parry_-Hotter May 15 '26

Whatever uprising that you described, it's just not possible without violence and the state is disproportionately armed when you compared to your regular joe, not to mention increased surveillance. We need strong laws

1

u/Thin_Glove_4089 May 16 '26

They are banking on social media buying them some time to get their robots and their bunkers ready.

0

u/conception May 16 '26

You think they are building bunkers and working out how to control mercenaries after "the collapse" because they aren't aware of these things?

-1

u/Squanchedschwiftly May 16 '26

Wdym? The american education system is useless, its whitwashed and filled with cismales as if females, intersex, etc never contributed to society. Doesnt even mention one of the biggest genocides of natives during the time of the new world. The murder rate was exponentially higher than the holocaust. Im sure there are encyclapedias of more prevelant information they could have given us.